Akron Zips, the best team in Ohio?

Akron is a team that’s coming off of two straight NCAA tournament bids and begins their current season with a top 15 KenPom offense, much improved from their 71st ranking last season and 164th rank two seasons ago. They’re currently 3rd in the country in points per game putting up an average of 95.8 points per game through their first 11 and 15th in three point percentage shooting it at 39.81% from range. This offense is much more elite than the team who lost in the first round to Creighton two seasons ago and Arizona just a year ago. Their top 5 scorers are all shooting above 38% from three helping the team put up 100+ points on four different occasions already this season.

Their key losses this season were to other elite offenses including Purdue who is the number 1 offense in the entire country. They also lost a 3 point high scoring affair on a neutral court to Yale who holds a top 20 offense. Top leading scorers and seniors Tavari Johnson, Amani Lyles, Shammah Scott and Evan Mahaffey all have multiple game experience in March and have helped lead this team to back to back MAC tournament championships. Last season, they also won the regular season with a 17-1 in conference record.

This team starts four guards and are undersized which can make them vulnerable to bigger teams as seen through their loss to Purdue where they were out-rebounded 45-26. They also are nowhere near as elite defensively currently ranked 211th out of 365 teams. All in all with their experience through their seniors playing into March and elite shooting offense it's easy to see this team as a potential first round upset.

Currently, Joe Lunardi has this team as a 12 seed playing against Nebraska in the Round of 64 come March. If they can upset Nebraska they could potentially play Houston or East Tennessee State all of whom are outside of a top 25 offense. If any of those teams struggle to keep up with Akron's elite scoring offense, this team could make a run into the second weekend.